Representatives of national security institutions, on Wednesday appealed to the local media to be circumspect in their reportage on issues that border on national security. They made the call at a forum jointly organised by the Editors Forum Ghana (EFG) and the Ghana Journalists Association for the media to interact with officials of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and Ghana Police Service (GPS) on matters bordering on national security. Colonel Emmanuel Nibo, Head of Public Relations Directorate of the GAF noted that media reportage on matters of national security had often worsened rather than ameliorated already bad situation, saying that part of the problem was the low level of understanding of media personnel of issues of national security. He therefore urged media houses to establish defence and security desks in their newsrooms to afford selected reporters the opportunity to specialize in the area and become familiar with security jargons and to appreciate the importance of classified information in the interest of national security. Col. Nibo appealed to radio stations in particular to seek information from expert sources on issues of national security, saying that, often times, some radio stations called either novices or persons who had outdated information on the security situation to comment on current issues. Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mr. Kwesi Ofori, Director of Public Relations of the GPS said the media did a disservice to the nation by allowing politicians to use their media to make inflammatory statement that jeopardized national security and disturbed public peace. “Instead of politicians using the media to tell the public what their development agenda is if they were voted into power, they rather use the media to preach violence and the media allow it,” he said. He urged the media to detach themselves from politicians and political parties and focus on national interest and the interest of the people in filing their reports. DSP Ofori assured the public that in the forthcoming elections, the police would remain neutral and work to protect the integrity of the electoral process, even if it meant applying a reasonable amount of force. He called on the media to support the police in their effort to ensure that people followed due process instead of the media lambasting the police for applying force on recalcitrant civilians. Colonel William Ayamdo, Special Officer at the General Headquarters of the GAF added his voice to the appeal for the media not to publish reports that would kill the morale of members of the armed forces, saying that such a situation could have negative implications for the whole nation. He insisted that, even though the media enjoyed press freedom it was important for the press not to over stretch their freedom when it came to national security matters, saying that certain classified information needed to be necessarily protected. Ms. Adwoa Yeboah Afari, Interim Chair of the EFG said the media and the security officers needed to work in concert to ensure that, in doing their work the protection of national interest was paramount. Some media personnel picked an issue with the security officials for making statements to suggest that media personnel were complete novices when it comes to the issues of national security. They insisted that national security went beyond what uniformed security officers do, saying that reporting on issues of food security, corruption, abuse of incumbency and of public office, among others, had national security implications. Some of the journalists threw the blame back to the security agencies and to government for not managing security situation well and yet blame the media for inflaming passions with their reports. The journalists noted that the 1992 Constitution only made mention of national security but did not define national security, and therefore called on the uniformed national security officials to define national security if they claimed they knew all about it and media personnel knew nothing. Source: GNA